Since I was 6 or 7 years old I had always wanted to be in the military, specifically infantry. When i conceived that dream I'm sure the thought of a stretched earlobe would've made me cringe and shoot out my tongue. As time went on I met new people and a stretched ear went from being disgusting to a real desire. It seems like common sense to say that body mods and the Army aren't very happy bed mates. I became more and more worried as time went on that stretched ears might negatively effect my future career. A friend of mine who is a bit older than me joined up after high school, he had his ears at an inch, and during training they didn't force him to take them out. At one point he did have to get them sewn up.
At A Glance Author KEENAN Contact KEENAN@bme.anon When A week ago Artist Me Studio At home Location Montreal, Quebec
I spoke to a recruiter and he said that the Canadian Forces are an equal opportunity employer and unless the holes made me dramatically less wind resistant or made me mentally handicapped I should be fine. I was sufficiently comforted. Like most people I did lots of research through BME and other sources to find out what the process of stretching would involve. It seemed like as long as I was patient and smart about it I definitely wouldn't have to amputate my lobes because of gang green. I decided to get my ears pierced at 6g. I went downtown to High Times, a reputable piercing/ tattoo/ drug apparel studio (I'm edge so it was a bit ironic haha). I had my septum pierced before this, with the flipping technique my mom had no clue for a month or two until slipped up. She wasn't a fan of piercing, but after relentless begging and speeches about her logical fallacies, she gave in. Lou at high times pierced me at 6g and then tapered it to 4g right after.
I let it heal for a month, I worried about infection constantly so I took really good care. I decided to stretch it even though it wasn't fully healed (***!DUMB IDEA!***). A friend of mine had used electrician's tape, it seemed like a safe and cheap way to stretch. I had done a few tests myself and found that 3 wraps equalled about a millimetre. I added a millimetre of wraps every two or three weeks. I stopped wrapping around the flesh tunnels when they seemed too small and used drinking straws instead as the base. Throughout the process it seemed like my ears just weren't healing. They were still a bit fleshy even after two months. I decided to stop adding tape at 0g, my ears really needed a break. I also bought some emu oil at a health product shop, I had heard of its mystical healing properties and I was extremely curious.
It took a lot of patience for me to stop stretching. I did notice that the inside of my ears went from a raw looking pink to a beige, that was enough of a result for me to continue the healing regime. I really think the emu oil helped. Before I bought it my ears had made very little healing progress but when I began applying emu oil religiously it did seem like magic. When my ears looked fully healed I started adding electric tape wraps again. Using electric tape was an extremely good idea and I'd suggest it to anyone as long as they don't have an allergic reaction as I heard is does happen.
The large rolls of tape in my ear were getting on my nerves, I wanted to see through my ear so I fashioned my self some semi-respectable flesh tunnels out of a sharpie marker cap (they were about 14mm). I tried shoving them in, it was a two or three millimetre jump, so it was kind of painful. My right ear began to bleed profusely so I gave up on that one and put the tape plugs back in. My other lobe seemed to be fine. After one nights sleep my lobe with the sharpie marker cap in it was already swollen and leaking some puss. It was really large and painful to touch. I thought maybe it was a side effect of jumping sizes too fast but something didn't seem right. I didn't think it could get infected after just one night so I made the hypothesis that my body doesn't like plastic. I took the other sharpie tunnel out and put the tape plug back in.
I was a bit frustrated as I let my messed up lobes heal. After lots of emu oil rubbing they seemed fine. I wrapped one round of electric tape on the sharpie tunnels so my lobe wouldn't actually make contact with the plastic. I shoved them in and it went surprisingly well. I'm now at 9/16" and I'm really proud of my ears, especially the perdy marble plugs I bought. I'm continuing my stretching, I'd like to say I'll stop at a half an inch but this has become to much a hobby for me to stop that soon.